When crafting an out-of-office reply, keep in mind that you must provide sufficient detail so that recipients understand exactly when you’ll not be able to respond.
Here are some of the common questions and answers about holiday messages to employees.
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Wherever you go on holiday, you’ll probably have access to the internet at some point. You might want to acknowledge this in your O.O.O. – but it’s also worth forcing the sender to question if it’s really worth interrupting your holiday by setting up a very blunt alternative inbox... I know I’m supposed to say that I’ll have limited access to email and won’t be able to respond until I return, but that’s not true. My iPhone will be with me and I can respond if I need to. And I recognise that I’ll probably need to interrupt my vacation from time to time to deal with something urgent. That said, I promised my wife that I am going to try to disconnect, get away and enjoy our vacation as much as possible. So, I’m going to experiment with something new. I’m going to leave the decision in your hands: • If your email truly is urgent and you need a response while I’m on vacation, please resend it to [email protected] and I’ll try to respond to it promptly. • If you think someone else at First Round Capital might be able to help you, feel free to email my assistant, Fiona, and she’ll try to point you in the right direction.
Same. I also have a version that is customer facing/external and one that is internal. My coworkers get a little more info.
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A clear, thoughtful out of office message saves the caller from troubles and inconvenience caused by your unavailability as they know what they should do next. Such a system avoids the negative impact that could come from the inability to respond to calls and messages. Your clients would likely try and contact you again and again, getting frustrated and losing trust in your business.
The auto reply only allows you to choose between ‘No-one, Recents, Favourite, All Contacts’. I need it to reply to everyone. Is there a way of doing this?
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For specific assistance, I’ll be responding to emails on [date]. If you need something resolved urgently, please contact [Contact Name] at [contact email].
Thank you for your message! I'm out of the office from X DATE to Y DATE and will not be checking email. I'll follow up with you as soon as possible upon my return. If you have an urgent request, please contact XX person at YY email address.
I think it’s brilliant. Anyone emailing an animal shelter should appreciate a cute animal pic.
Once you’ve finally crossed off those last-minute items on your to-do list and are ready to check out of work mode for while, there’s just one last thing you need to do – set your out-of-office message.
Out of office messages can be as concise or detailed as you need but should follow a standard structure. Here are two templates you can use to create your own message.
Just hang in there, the holiday break is near. Alas! You can finally disconnect, recharge, and relax.
Feel free to share some examples of auto-reply messages that you have used or such that you’ve received. Include those in the comments below, and we can have a chat.
I agree that the reasons are not relevant. But at my last company, a coworker had overly short out of office messages. Examples: “out of office today.” Or “out of office until Monday.” With no additional information about coverage, etc. Those always felt overly curt to me and made me wonder, is this person okay? Was this OOO planned or are they on the verge of a mental breakdown? (It was a very toxic culture so this wasn’t out of the question). I would be curious to hear others perspectives on this. Is too little information just as bad?
Who talks like that? A blowhard, that’s who… I promise, gentle customer, you won’t hear garbage like that from me. I’ll tell you why I like Aviation… Because it tastes like somebody finally made a gin for everyone.